Cougars go cold in season-ending tourney loss

Clark University postgraduate Brian Vayda was understandably emotional after Wednesday night’s disappointing 52-34 loss to fifth-seeded Babson in a NEWMAC Tournament quarterfinal game at the Kneller Athletic Center.

After five mostly productive seasons, the 6-foot-6 Vayda played his final game for the Cougars, ending a stellar career for the Sturbridge product that included with a Division 2 state championship with Tantasqua Regional, but ended abruptly in his first and only home playoff game at Clark.

“It’s a terrible feeling right now, especially after everything I’ve been through with these guys,” said Vayda, who scored seven points, collected a game-high nine rebounds, dished out three assists and forced two steals.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” Vayda said. “It probably will later this week. All in all, I love all these guys. We’ve been through a lot. I’m best of friends with all these guys on this team. We share a lot on and off the court.”

Babson (14-12) will face top-seeded WPI in the semifinals at 1 p.m. Saturday at Harrington Auditorium. The Engineers swept the season series against the Beavers, defeating them by 33 and 23 points.

The fourth-seeded Cougars finished 12-14, losing their last four games.

“We battled and we came out with the victory,” said Babson sophomore guard Ryan Stowe of Shrewsbury. “We’re going to practice hard in the next two days, and we’ll be ready to play on Saturday. We struggled at their place this year, but hopefully we’re going to come out on top.”

Clark couldn’t have picked a worse time to score a season-low in points. It shot 22.7 percent in the first half, 27.7 percent overall. Postgrad D.J. Bailey scored a team-high nine points on 4-of-5 shooting, but was otherwise neutralized.

Vayda said Clark had big expectations going into this season.

“I thought, defensively, we played well in the first half,” said Vayda, who shot 3 for 14 from the field. “We couldn’t execute offensively. I thought we prepared well. (Babson) is a good team, but we didn’t show up tonight.”

The Cougars, who defeated the Beavers twice during the regular season, trailed by only 13-11 after a Vayda basket, but Babson rattled off seven straight points on a basket by Holden’s David Mack (8 points, 7 rebounds), a trey by Stowe and a layup by John Wickey (game-high 13 points, 7 rebounds) to make it 20-11 with 5:49 left in the first half.

Vayda’s free throw cut it to 20-12 with 4:31 left in the first half, but a put-back by Russell Braithwaite and a trey by Travis Sheldon put the Beavers on top, 25-12, with 2:27 remaining.

Vayda’s bucket with 23 seconds left made it 25-14.

Clark trailed by nine, 27-18, after a left-handed jump hook by Bailey with 16:43 left in the second half, but individual Beavers took turns scoring in spurts.

Wickey scored Babson’s first nine points of the second half before Braithwaite rattled off the next five.

Sheldon netted five straight points and Mack sealed it with six consecutive points on three field goals.

Babson led by as many as 25 late in the second half before Clark showed some life. The crowd enjoyed Tyler Veretto’s slam dunk off a perfect alley-oop pass from Tyler Huffman with 29 seconds left.

“We were just terrible,” Clark coach Paul Phillips said. “We were definitely ready to play. … We started playing pickup basketball at the end and just gave them hoops.

“I feel terrible as a coach that I couldn’t help them more. These guys will never feel like they left it all on the court. I know at some point, the pain will go away.”

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